


The (Knock-Off) Selection: The Collection

by Snow_Tempest



Category: The Selection Series - Kiera Cass
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:15:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28356849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snow_Tempest/pseuds/Snow_Tempest
Summary: Caste 8 Murica lives with her pod, her "family", goes to work in the sewers, and at night visits her lover Aspirin. When she receives a letter offering an opportunity to take part in the collection, a competition for Prince Axton's heart, she thinks she'll never get in and that she doesn't want to get in. But when she does, and Aspirin breaks her heart, she goes to the world of 1s: the royal palace. How will she survive when pitted up against women who have trained their whole lives for this? Career M.R.S.'? And will she find love, or just heartbreak?
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	The (Knock-Off) Selection: The Collection

My pod decided all our problems were solved when we got my letter in the post box we kept. 

‘Murica Sewage. No amount of fancy, rolled calligraphy could hide the fact that my name and occupation were in fact, ugly. My name headed the cream-colored note, along with the words, “You have been chosen for this year’s collection! Thirty-four other girls have the same honor, they will be like sisters to you.”

I squinted. All the family I needed was right here, in my pod. As eights, we didn’t have family, not officially. But we tended to travel together and pool funds and cook meals together like one. Mank Dump, Finia Scrounge, Kerlyn Burner, and Hank Digs were my own caste eight pod. And now Finia was gasping and clutching the letter with her hands, grubby from carcass collecting. 

“Imagine, ‘Murica with the prince!” She squealed. 

“She’ll be rich!” Hank exclaimed, “Will we be rich?” He picked the dirt from under his short fingernails. 

“I haven’t gotten in yet!” I exclaimed, “And besides,” I sighed, crashing down on a half-broken crate of defective toys, “I don’t want to be in it.”

“What?” almost everyone said at once, save for the measured Mank. 

“But you’re so pretty!” Kerlyn clucked me under the chin. 

“Debatable.” Hank and I chorused as I tugged on my long, ratty and mousy hair. 

“You should at least try.” Finia implored, pressing the letter to my chest, “Go apply, for me?” She begged, with her best puppy eyes, setting off her face’s bright oily sheen and pimples. 

“Yeah,” Mank said, “For us?” They looked at me expectantly and I sighed. 

“I’ll think about it.” 

That night I wedged the letter in the crack between my bunk and Kerlyn’s. I then waited til everyone was asleep, a cacophony of snores ricocheting in the small beached world war III submarine my pod called home. 

I snuck out, slipping my shoes on once I got outside, and made my way to the lifeguard tower a ways down on the beach. I climbed up the rotten wood steps and entered, she was already waiting for me, Aspirin. 

“Hey!” We whispered at the same time, then giggled. Our lips found each other’s and all the worries of the day disappeared. No more thoughts of an empty stomach, aching muscles from crawling through pipes to restore sewage lines, no more depression for a moment. Just Aspirin. 

She held me at an arm’s length, “You smell-”

“Yeah,” I laughed, self-deprecatingly, “But you smell like roses.”

She grinned, “Good nose, I worked in a three’s garden today. She had roses out front.”

She was a seven, and worked in landscaping with her family. 

“Abe Lincoln?” I guessed, raising an eyebrow. 

“How did you know?”

I plucked a stray deep red petal from behind her ear in her dark hair. 

She pinched my nose, and I laughed. 

I sat back and crossed my legs, holding my ankles. “I got the letter today.”

Her face grew serious, “You did.”

I huffed a laugh and tossed my head, “It’s not like I’m going to enter anyway. May as well rip it up.”

Aspirin breathed out of her nose sharply, “No.”

“No?”

“You should try.”

“But I love you, and there is no way that I could get in! It would just be a waste of a work day. I can’t afford to lose the money.”

Aspirin sighed and put both hands on my shoulders, “You are beautiful, and you have a chance. I will pay you back what you usually make for that day. Just go.”

“I just don’t want to be a bother--”

“‘Ica, just go.” The look in her dark eyes made me feel at once all warm and gooey and pinned in place. 

“Fine, but only pay me half of what I make.”

She smiled and leaned forward and kissed me, “I love you.”

I bit her lip and my canine tooth wobbled, “Oops, I love you too. Gotta shove that back in!” I messed with it until it clicked back into place. 

“Just promise me you will do it?”

“I will.”

“Good. I’ll do something special for us after, I promise.” She stretched her legs out in the cramped space, then got up to leave, “Mother will worry if I’m gone too long.”

“I know.” I sighed, standing with her. She shared one last hug, then she left the lifeguard tower to walk from the beach to the beach apartment she shared with three families. 

I waited for a bit, then headed back to the submarine beached on the shore, almost completely on its side. 

I snuck back inside, slipped off my shoes, and went to sleep, clutching the envelope. 

\---

The day came when I stood in the long line of sixteen to twenty year olds outside of one of the theaters in the heart of town. I had borrowed someone’s vespa to get there, and chained it up to the bike rack. 

When I looked around I saw absolutely no one I knew. There wasn’t a single eight in sight, unless they cleaned up superbly well, smelled really nice and were wearing thrifted threads. I still smelled from yesterday, even though I had taken a bath and scrubbed myself down thoroughly. I wore my grey work coveralls with a sky-blue tank top underneath, which was the nicest thing I owned. 

“Nice day we’re having!” I said to the girl and her mother next to me, “Are you nervous? I am.” 

They cringed and turned away and shuffled a few inches closer to the woman and her daughter in front of them. 

I tried not to feel hurt, I knew that there were shit-stains on the knees of my coveralls, and that somewhere in my hair there was a comb still stuck in the knots. 

When I entered the theater I was blown away. I hadn’t been in one of these for a long time. And usually always in the rafters, or backstage. From here I was level with the chairs and I could see the stage. 

Then it was my turn, they only posed me from the front and they got two pictures. One of my face, and one of my whole body. I tried not to be too hung up on the shit-stains again. I filled out my application and turned it in. 

“Huh,” The woman at the box said, considering my papers, “I didn’t know eights could write!”

I gave her a strained smile. I then left, free as a bird, riding the borrowed electric vespa back to the motor shop to return it. 

\--

Two weeks passed quietly. On the job I was working as usual, and off the job I was with my pod or curled up in Aspirin’s arms. 

Then it was time for the newscast. 

Finia wouldn’t miss it for the world, like most thirteen year old girls, she lived for romance and drama. Kerlyn and Mank went in support of me, which was sweet, but foolhearty. And Hank went to heckle the TV as if they could hear him. 

We all gathered at the window of a restaurant that had the TV turned on to government programing and strained to hear through the glass as the owner turned the volume up. 

“This year we have a beautiful _collection_ of girls, wouldn’t you say, Prince Axton?”

There was laughter from the TV’s audience. 

“They laughed at that? Boo!” Hank cupped his hands around his mouth. 

“Have you seen any of the girls’ pictures yet?”

The prince moved uncomfortably in his seat, but smiled, “No I have not, Mr. Fibhey.”

“Ah, so this is as much of a surprise for you as it is for the whole country of Scillia!”

“Yes.” Prince Axton said stiffly with a curt nod. One of his honey locks fell in front of his eye, and I could tell he was dying to fix it, but determined to keep as still as humanly possible instead. 

“So what do we say, Scillia? Shall we meet our new selected?”

A cheer rose up from the TV crowd. 

“Boo!” Hank booed. 

“Shut up, out there!” A patron smacked the glass at us and Hank cut himself off with a frown. 

Pictures of beautiful girls and women appeared on the screen, all smiling and looking their best, with anything from heavy to light makeup applied. 

“Star Oldsome: Two!... Wednesday Haver: Four!... “

There was a double screen that showed the prince’s reaction to every girl’s photo that came up. 

“Big Leen: Three!... Criss Ruby: Three!--” He suddenly cut off and stared blankly at where the teleprompter was. Then he slowly said, “‘Murica Sewage… Eight.” With the most imperceptible of shudders. 

My picture flashed on the screen. I had bags under my eyes, my hair was tangled, and my tooth looked a little loose still. 

I couldn’t even see the prince’s reaction because my pod jumped on me so suddenly and enthusiastically. They were whooping while I blinked the stars out of my eyes. Then I noticed the furious chatter inside the restaurant. No, in every place people were viewing the government program. An  _ eight _ . 

I shook them off, turned and ran. 

  
  


\--

“Honey, we don’t know what you are feeling, but we’re here for you.” Mank said soothing in his baritone voice as my pod stood outside the communications room which I had locked myself in. 

“Come on! You got in! It’s a Christmas miracle!” Hank exclaimed through the door. 

I groaned as I held my knees to my chest, “Never bring up Christmas after the incident, remember? Plus, it’s not even December.”

“There she is! She talked to us!” Kerlyn sang, “It really isn’t that bad, we should see what the government people want from us, then see if you still want to go through with it.”

I pouted and crossed my arms, then uncrossed them. I loved Aspirin. I couldn’t imagine falling in love with some stiff guy the next day! 

I wheeled the locking mechanism open and peeked out at my pod. 

“I’ll think about it.”

“Yay!” Finia squealed and jumped on me, “They were totally impressed with you on the TV after you left.”

I grimaced, “I’m sure they were.”

That night I snuck out to the lifeguard tower to meet Aspirin. 

I got there first. I waited in the dark and silence, contemplating the events of the earlier evening. 

“‘Ica.” I looked up and saw my lover enter, and I relaxed a bit. 

“Aspirin! I just feel so overwhelm--”

“Have you eaten today?” She interrupted. 

“No,” I raised my eyebrows, “Thank god, I would have thrown it all up earlier!”

“Here,” She passed me a mason jar filled with berries and bacon. I felt bad not sharing with my pod, but it did mean I had more energy to work, and I made more money that way. 

“Thanks,” I stuffed my face. 

“I’ve been thinking.” She said softly. 

“Yes?” I swallowed and looked into her eyes. 

She sighed, “Where is this going?” She gestured to herself and me, “We’re two women. We can’t get married, and we can’t have sex before we get married, so if we touch we could get killed.” She sucked on her rosy bottom lip. 

“What matters is we love each other, right?” I blinked, “Is there someone else?”

She was silent, “I think we should break up. You should take part in the selection, see the Prince for a while. You’ll thank me later.”

“You’re trying to get rid of me?” I breathed, “Oh god.”

“I’m sorry, ‘Ica.” She murmured, and shoved something in my hand and took the jar, then disappeared out the door of the tower. 

I slapped my right hand over my mouth and hot tears welled in my eyes. I began to curl in on myself when I saw what she gave me: a white rose. 

I bolted upright and took off, sprinting into the night, a burst of mania taking me. I screamed silently and threw rocks as far as I could to abate the feeling. Then the low swing of depression came again. 

I looked to the rose I had accidentally crushed a little in my left hand. I brought it up to my nose. 

It smelled sweet. 


End file.
